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BJP Government Performance Analysis: Administration & Governance

This is my 2nd article in the series of articles which analyse the work of Modi government starting from 2014 till present date. This one is about administration and governance. Unlike the first one on defence, it is not that binary and there are quite a few gray areas and is subject to opinions as much it is to facts. For example, I like how NGOs have been brought under tougher checks and a lot of such organisations have been forced to shut shop. But quite a few people view it as unfair. Additionally, there is an overlap between governance issues and various others like economy, foreign policy etc. In this article, focus will will be on the work done or changes in way of working of central government ministries and departments. Some of these will be mentioned in next article which will be about economy issues.

1. Steps for leaner, responsive and more efficient government.

This is the most obvious, yet hardest things to do for any regime. All the decisions made by the politically elected government are implemented by officials who usually see multiple such governments come and go through their service. It is next to impossible to fire or even penalise them for even gross incompetence. Any reform in their way of working is extremely hard and takes years of sustained effort. Political and ideological differences even among ministers also play their part. Then there are politicians who have a mutually beneficial nexus with such officials even when they are out of power. Some of the first steps taken by Modi regime was to break this nexus and it seems to have succeeded partially. But there is still a long way to go.

GOOD

Squatters from govt properties removed

1. Officials working for central government have been forced to work much harder, so much so that many now view these prestigious jobs as punishment postings. Many non-performing officers have been disciplined and even sacked, a first. 1* 2* 29* 68* 112* 118* 132*
2. Even serving ministers have been forced to adopt austerity measures. Some examples are no new vehicles, reduced travel expenses 11*13* 71* 125*
3. Influence of foreign interests, corporates and their lobbyists has been severely curtailed. Many “powerful” people who had a lot of influence in various ministries and govt departments now don’t have insider knowledge or influence over decision making. 26* 63* 75*
4. Many politicians squatting on government properties have been forced to vacate them. List of more than 1500 such squatters includes many former ministers, MLAs, MPs and many so called artists, inetellectuals who have been staying in govt allotted properties long after their time was over. Even BJP run state governments have evacuated have evacuated former CMs and MLAs. 61* 65* 104* 108* 109* 113*
5. Business of paid for postings and transfers in many central govt departments has been severely curtailed. 7* 105*
6. Many useless posts have been abolished and major departments downsized and streamlined. Often posts like this were used to accommodate officials in high paying post-retirement postings.4* 117*
7. There is much greater communication between government and people. Many ministers and even PM office interact with common citizens on Twitter among other platforms. 124* 119*
8. Options opened for direct entry of domain experts in to government departments. 133* 134* 135*
9. Various measures taken to improve business climate like curtailment of harassment by various inspectors, passing of bankruptcy law, steps to improve ease of doing business among many others. It resulted in India making a record jump in ease of doing business index in 2017 and broke in to top 100 for first time. 3* 10* 12* 23* 46* 59* 66* 72* 154* 155* 156* 158* 159* 160*
10. A very large number of old, archaic laws removed. Latest one under consideration (July 2018) in Supreme Court is article 377, removal of which will lead to decriminalisation of homo-sexuality. 1159 such redundant laws removed in just 2 years. 42* 163* 164* 165*

BAD

1. Attempts to clean up bureaucracy and red tape need more will. In 4 years, there have not been many deep reforms in functioning of most govt departments, as far as corruption and delays are concerned. Then there have been some seemingly counter-productive measures like the one which makes it harder to investigate a govt servant.
2. For most part, BJP ruled states have not shown enough initiative and willingness for reforms as was expected of them.

SCORE: 6.5/10

There are some measures like removing squatters from palatial govt properties, attempted reforms in beuraucracy

2.Corruption and black money.

Recovering black money was one of the major poll promises of BJP and they have made fairly good progress on some fronts while it lacks on others.. As it happened, cleanups also unearthed huge scams in bank loans in which UPA regime gave away loans to numerous people who never meant to pay those back. This has proven to be one of the biggest scams in history and many big industrialists and UPA politicians including former Finance Minister Chidambaram have been implicated. Many of them have ran away from India to escape persecution. Apart from that, even after their best efforts, all the opposition parties and their followers have been unable to find a single corruption charge against Modi regime till date.

Action against corruption and black money

Demonetisation, however controversial it may be, has enabled recovery of untaxed income worth thousands of crores which would have never happened except for drastic measure like this. Implementation of GST was not perfect, but it has led to streamlined taxation process with reduced leakage, This link contains list of some income tax raids done immediately after demonetisation. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vRovmVA_9x7NoyJHFLFZ7pA1Mi7gUYB6_OuGHgQA0pFLc9qQ1xTGMClqpGrudmZJ7YrBcg1n-VguZBi/pubhtml?gid=1658058173&single=true

GOOD

1. Huge scam in banking sector in which loans worth thousands of crores were given away without proper checks under influence of UPA ministers unearthed. Number of industrialists, bank officials and politicians are implicated. Many of these industrialists are being forced to give back that money. Legal actions being taken against others, some of which have fled India and some politicians and their associates. Banks starting to show gains after sustained recovery efforts. 120* 131* 136* 137* 138* 139* 140* 141* 158*
2. Many politicians jailed or under investigation for various corruption issues including former CMs and central ministers. 130* 142* 143* 144* 149* 150*
3. Many dubious NGOs, many of which have shady backgrounds have been forced to shut shop or forced to reduce their operations. Among the benign ones, many of such organisations were front for money laundering and payment of lackeys. Others were foreign sponsored fronts for mass scale conversions of Indics, anti-India propaganda and terrorism. 5* 9* 21* 91* 115* 126* 127* 145*
4. A large quantity of black money from foreign bank accounts successfully recovered. Treaties signed with Switzerland (among other countries) under which Swiss will share details of Indians owning bank accounts in Swiss banks. 103* 122* 128* 129* 146* 148*
5. Large increase in number of people paying income tax after rules like Aadhar verification, demonetisation, GST. Huge amounts of money recovered in income tax raids. Properties of gangsters targeted. Lakhs of shell companies closed down. 101* 121* 123* 128* 129* 147* 151* 152* 153* 161*
6. Stronger laws passed against corruption and tax evasion. Top level corruption reduces significantly. 33* 75* 93* 101* 102*

BAD

1. Modi regime perhaps underestimated how difficult the recovery of black money from foreign accounts will be. Although a huge sum of money has been recovered, the whole process will take a lot longer and most likely will fall short of hype during election campaign.
2. A number of bank loan defaulters managed to evade authorities and escape to foreign countries. If they had been arrested earlier, then loan recovery would have been a lot more easier and faster.
3. Implementation of GST was not up to par. Numerous issues still exist which will take atleast a few months to be sorted out.
4. Although I personally support demonetisation, it was not as well planned as it should have been. Very large number of people faced inconveniences for quite long time due to shortage of currency. Strangely, number of currency notes in circulation has reached back previous levels.

5. Even if corruption at top levels has been reduced, grassroot corruption still seems to be as bad as it was earlier. Problem of citizens dealing directly with govt departments have not eased much.

SCORE: 6.5/10

The actual score would have been a 6. Extra half point is due to clean image of almost every minister and no scams yet. Opposition parties have tried their best to make up scams like the one for Rafale planes, but their attempts have been laughably stupid.

3. Programs for citizens.

Reforms in electricity

This regime seems to have better reach out programs for general public which are meant to make their lives and interaction with government machinery easier and fruitful. In addition to big steps like Jan Dhan bank accounts, Mudra Yojna, free LPG for poor, there have been number of measures implemented to make government departments more responsive and approachable. Some of these points have overlap with economy and infrastructure issues, but they are mentioned here because they affect lives of citizens directly. and profoundly.. Some of these will be explained in detail in later posts.

GOOD

1. Red tape cut across various government departments. Steps like digital locker, self-attestation of documents and a few others meant to reduce paperwork, unnecessary delays and corruption implemented. 47* 62* 66* 67* 72* 107*
2. Jan Dhan Yojna brings banking to the poorest and enables direct transfer of funds for subsidies and other welfare programs. This is one of the best measures in quite a long time meant for direct benefit of the poor. Reduces delays and corruption. 167* 168* 169* 170* 171* 172* 173* 175*
3. Passport issue and re-issue process made much easier and faster. 110* 166*
4. More platforms for feedback about government departments and policies created. Emphasis on transparency in governance and grievance redressal mechanisms. 79* 124* 116* 119*
5. Steps taken to solve some employee issues related to Provident Fund, pensions and others. Lot more reforms still needed. 6* 18*
6. Swachh Bharat Mission despite problems is showing some results. 85% of population now has access to toilets, compared to around 40% at start of program. According to WHO, 3 lakhs deaths caused by diarrhea were averted between 2014 and 2019. A lot of public places like railway stations are much cleaner. 175 * 176* 177* 178* 179*

Source https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/img/63791557/Master.jpg

7. Ujwala Yojana, a scheme meant to eradicate use of polluting fuels like wood, coal, dung for cooking proves to be a good success. 5 crore new connections allotted ahead of target. 180* 181* 182* 183*
8. While many countries struggle with it, India implements strong net neutrality rules. 184* 185*
9. Multiple steps taken to improve conditions for farmers. Extra impetus on reducing malnutrition and increasing availability of nutritional food to citizens through various schemes. 186*, 187*, 188*, 189* 205* 206*
10. Excellent work so far by power ministry bringing even the remotest places in India on electricity grid. A number of villages which had remained outside the grid now have electricity. Additionally, electricity production and distribution is much better. India has a power surplus and is 3rd largest electricity producer in world. Most of issues still remaining are more often than not due to inefficient and corrupt state electricity corporations. Cheap LED bulbs help in reducing power consumption. 190*, 191* 192* 193* 194* 195* 196* 197* 198* 199* 200* 201* 202*
11. Much needed push for solar power with huge new solar power plants coming up. 203* 204*
12. Pace of road construction across the country has picked up substantially and it has been the highest till now. Many remote regions have new connectivity and existing highways in most regions have been upgraded, 207* to 232* 26 links

BAD

1. Inspite of all the schemes and subsidies, Indian agricultural sector suffers from various issues which will need a lot more work and better implementations. There has been no obvious solution of issues arising due to small size of land holdings, mimimum support prices and bureaucratic red tape.
2. Swach Bharat mission has been partially successful at best.
3. Implementation of digital measures meant to reduce red tape have had limited effect till now. Many people and govt departments remain unaware and disinterested in these changes.

SCORE: 7/10

If it was just the intention of projects mentioned here, this would be a full 10. But meaningful implementation of many of these projects is hampered by numerous factors like inefficient, corrupt bureaucracy, infinitely stupid and large population as well as mediocre planning. Some of these projects are longterm and the effects will be visible only after a certain amount of time.

FINAL SCORE: 6.6/10

If compared with UPA regime, this one is miles ahead in almost everything. But this is not a good enough standard to improve upon. There have been some good efforts from top, but on ground implementation has been good in only a few. Some of the long standing issues like reforms in bureaucracy, agriculture and a few other fields which will take more than just good intent and announcement of schemes.